Dancing, prancing and dawning realizations
by SaidbhinLuch
Summary: A transfiguration assignment leads to a bit more then Lily had thought it might! Humour, fluff and silly antics ensue! With maybe a dash of seriousness and romance!


_**Disclaimer:**__** If only I was JK Rowling, I'd be doing a better job at writing then this!**_

* * *

Lily scratched out a line in her notes as she raised a hand to her forehead. She looked round at Alice who seemed to have fallen asleep on her potions book. She arched an eyebrow as she noticed Sam balancing bits of folded up paper on Alice's head. Mary seemed to be suppressing giggles at the site of the black haired girl's endeavours.

Lily smiled at her friends' antics as she put her own potions notes away and stretched. The three girls stopped as Alice snorted slightly in her dream. They all looked at each other before bursting into laughter causing Alice to start and topple out of her chair.

'Honestly don't you four know how to be quiet?' Vikki, one of the other Gryffindor seventh years, sniffed haughtily at the group. She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and turned to bat her eyes at someone behind Lily.

'Honestly don't you know how to relax?' Sirius Black parroted at the girl sitting down next to Sam. Vikki turned bright red before scurrying back to her friends. Alice, having finally managed to pick herself off the floor, her slightly rounded face a luminous scarlet, and sat back down on the other side of Mary.

'I hate mornings. Especially when we have stupid potions exams. Why did I keep it on? I'm ever terrible at it!' Alice moaned pulling her hair up into a pony tail and grabbing the pumpkin juice.

'Didn't you guys get the message?' All four girls turned round to see James stop next to Lily, before swinging his leg over the bench and sitting down.

'What message?' Lily asked as she buttered a slice of toast for herself.

'Oh apparently Slughorn got a little bit too merry last night and has cancelled all his morning classes. Bumped into dear old Minnie on the way down this morning.' He nodded up at the teachers and Lily noticed that Slughorn wasn't present and that Professor McGonagall was looked extremely peeved.

'YAY!' Alice exclaimed throwing her arms in the air and proceeding to dance in her seat. Sirius who had leaned forward at this point decided to join in, but upping the ante as it were, by starting to do an Irish jig on the bench.

Mary looked up at the dancing boy and shrugged in a 'what the heck' sort of manner and joined in.

Lily blinked at the sight of the two girls and Sirius dancing at eight o'clock in the morning in the middle of the great hall.

'Do you ever wonder about them?' James leaned over and muttered quietly in Lily's ear. She laughed quietly and looked up their friends.

'All the time, it's practically a full time job at this point.'

At this James chuckled and poured him and Lily a cup of tea, while they watched the three, soon joined by Sam dance around chaotically.

'I'll drink to that!' He raised the teacup up to Lily, inclining his head at her and they both laughed as they watched their friends dance around. Lily blinked slightly as she took a sip and turned to James who was smiling gently at the three dancing around.

'You know how I take my tea?' The words tumbled out of her mouth as she looked up at James, who looked round at her and arched an eyebrow at her.

'I do? Guess I'm more observant then I thought.' He gave her a lopsided smirk before munching on a slice of toast and opening up the Daily Prophet. Lily humphed at him light heartedly before opening up her own copy and reading through it,

'How's Remus?' Alice asked, panting slightly as the trio sat back down ending their dance routine to a round of applause.

'He's fine; he should be down for Transfiguration at 11.' Sirius replied plonking himself down heavily next to Alice and stuffing two slices of toast down his throat. The four girls looked up at him revolted, in response he grinned broadly and they just shuddered in response.

'This paper is just crap. Just Ministry bull crap that is worth less than the parchment it's printed on.' James scoffed angrily slamming the paper down and ruffling his hair in agitation. As Lily stared at her own paper, she looked sadly down at the tiny paragraph about the rake of muggle murders, before closing the paper and sighing.

'Propaganda, that's all this is.' She agreed before grabbing her bag and getting up.

'I'll be in the heads dorms if you want me. I'm going to practice the Animagi prep spell before Transfig.' Lily walked off down the Great Hall holding on the straps of her satchel and biting her lip.

* * *

Lily stopped outside the Heads portrait and stared up at it blankly for a few seconds.

'Pax.' James stood up next to her and quietly issued the portrait's password. Lily stepped in ahead of him into their Heads Dorms common room.

She sighed again and flung herself none too gracefully onto the couch facing the fireplace. James chuckled at her actions sat down on the closest arm chair and shook his head at her as he took out his notes and books.

'What?' Lily blinked at James owlishly as he arranged his notes still chuckling every so often.

'Sorry, it's just I remember you giving out to me in, fourth year, I think it was, for flinging myself on the couch in the main Common Room.' Lily laughed lightly at him, remembering the incident.

'I do believe I was giving out because when you flung yourself down onto the couch, I was sitting on it.' She countered, smirking and reaching for her own notes as James began to laugh harder.

'Oh yeah, I asked you out right? What was it then... 20th time?'

'Try thirtieth.'

James eyes widened and he shook his head in amusement. He stopped and thought deeply for a second.

'So you're telling me that I asked you out 30 times between September and December? How precocious was I?' James started chuckling again before picking up a heavily notated Transfiguration book and flipping through it.

'Precocious? Try annoyingly irritating!'

'Annoyingly irritating? Isn't that more than a tad redundant?' He tilted his head and pushed his glasses up his nose. Lily smirked and moved her hair off her shoulders and giggled.

'Imagine how I felt at the time!'

They both laughed for a time and focused back on their work. Every so often Lily glanced up to see James trying out the Animagi spell with an almost casual indifference. She cocked her head and watched as a miniature dark grey stag leapt out of his wand and pranced around the table. Her jaw dropped she noticed that James wasn't even watching and was casting the spell almost absent-mindedly.

James looked up at her face and pulled a '_what?' _expression at her as she continued to stare at him in slack jawed amazement.

'How're you-, how're you doing that?' Lily exclaimed pointing from the smoky stag and to him and back again.

'You're having trouble with it?' James seemed to be genuinely baffled by her reaction to his spell work.

'Nearly everyone is! Except you, Black and Remus apparently!' Lily gestured wildly at him and sat back onto the couch. James smiled bashfully and rubbed the back of his head.

'Transfiguration has always been easier for me then most subjects. Your potions and charms work blows mine out of the air. Here let me help.'

James leaned forward and places his notes carefully on the table and his book next to his pile. He got up and took the notes out of Lily's hands and skimmed through them.

'Hm. Right' He frowned and then nodded placing them on top of his own stuff. He pushed the table back from Lily and sat down, hands splayed on the table either side of him and legs outstretched. Lily looked at him in confusion and twitched uncomfortably as he watched her. Oddly enough he was staring at her over the lenses of his glasses.

'What?'

'First things first. You need to relax, this spell won't work if you're that tense about it.'

Lily looked at him sceptically before sighing and pulling one leg up and settling down on the couch.

'Now Transfiguration is about control of your wand movements, not flare and drama and you need to be focused on the spell but not overly so.'

Lily looked at him in confusion and James clarified before she could ask.

'First time I tried this, I all I could think about the incantation and not the final outcome and what it would mean. I burned off my eyebrows. This spell has odd consequences if you screw it up.'

Lily laughed at the mental picture of James wandering around with no eyebrows.

'Yeah, they're finally even now.' He chuckled along with her and reached up to touch his eyebrows, almost as if he was checking their evenness and waggled them for emphasis.

'Now open your eyes but don't focus on me. Now cast the incantation but don't get caught up in it. You're used to wandless magic.' Lily felt James move to the side of the couch and speaking quietly about maintaining strict wand control and suddenly a small doe erupted from her wand.

Lily squealed and jumped up excitedly.

'I did it! I did it! I DID IT!' She chanted delightedly and began to dance around. She spied James watching her with the same amusement as when he watched Black and the girls dancing about earlier. Lily, in her delight, grabbed his hands and tried to get him to dance with her. At first he just rolled his eyes but as Lily laughed up at him he relented and bopped around with her.

As he spun her jokingly, Lily stumbled and knocked into James and they both tumbled onto the couch, as a voice issued from the corner she bounced off James and landed with a hard smack onto the floor.

'My, my, oh my. I didn't realise that this was what the Head's Dorms was for.' Both teens looked up to see Sirius smirking deviously at them and Remus chuckling lightly next to him.

Lily got up, blushing furiously and gathered up her belongings. She heard James get and head over to the pair and talking furiously to Sirius. Lily sat down again and cast the spell again, this time pausing to look at the graceful grey doe that emerged.

Remus sat down slowly on the arm chair, wincing slightly as he did so and watched the smoke animal prance around before melting away.

'Very apt for you, I think.' He stated leaning back and adjusting his threadbare robes.

'Besides the whole graceful thing?' Lily joked trying to bite down on the blush still raging across her face.

'Let me guess, you managed the spell and in your delight you started dancing. Got caught up in the moment, got James to dance with you, he spun you and you stumbled. Right?'

She rolled her eyes and sighed.

'Am I that predictable?'

'No. We saw you start dancing and the events directly leading up to you two falling over. Nice bounce by the way.' Remus smiled wickedly at her and startled laughing at her re-emerging blush.

'Are you flirting with James' precious Lily-of-the-Valley?' Black leaned over the back of the couch, hands folded and winked saucily at her. Lily rolled her eyes and glared up at him.

'Lily-of-the-Valley? Are you high?'

'Not a fan? No? Oh back to Evans it is! Unless you prefer Lily-Flower?' Lily just gave him her most evil look before James came dashing down from his room and knocking into Black who promptly fell over the back and landed face first into the floor.

He made a muffled noise, in an attempt to get someone to help him up. Remus merely closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. Lily picked up her notes and began reading them once again, asking James for advice and he leaned on the back of Blacks legs stopping him from moving. Lily tucked her legs up underneath her so Black couldn't pull her down and James grabbed his wand from his back pocket.

After about 10 minutes of Black cursing and barking irritably at them, James finally relented and let up and jumped over the back of the couch, as his best mate slithered to the floor, and sat down next to Lily. He smiled charmingly at her and she tossed him a look for jostling the couch.

* * *

'Very nice Ms. Evans, Mr. Potter, 20 points each to Gryffindor.' Lily looked over the James and beamed happily as McGonagall nodded at the pairs' deer galloping across the desk and into nothingness. Black was laughing at the shaggy dog that was chasing its tail and Remus was looking sadly down at his own wolf.

James smiled forlornly at the small wolf before leaning his head on his hand with his elbow leaning on the desk next to Lily.

Lily glanced over at the wolf and back curiously at James who leaned closer to her and spoke quietly to her.

'Due to his little problem, Remus can't become an animagus.' Lily uttered a low 'oh' and looked around the class room.

Sam was laughing at what looked to be an Irish setter jogging around her desk and Alice was poking at a terrier that was jumping over her quills. Lily cast the spell again and leaned closer to watch it and James followed suit.

'Oh look, what a pretty pair those two make!' Black at this point was stretched across his desk in front of scoffing Remus. Lily jumped in surprise as a grey bat flew between the head students and she turned round to see Snape glowering at the pair. She stared levelly at him for a minute before turning back to James and Black who were arguing about whose animagi form was cooler.

'Oh shut it you great big mutt!' James muttered under his breath as McGonagall stared at the trio.

'Whatever Prongs.' At this Lily looked from the shadow stag to James and back again, before doing the same with Black's dog and Peter's rat shadows. She looked up at James who was staring at her with more than a measure of apprehension.

'You- you- you-' She managed to stammer looking from one boy to the next.

Both boys exchanged panicked looks and as everyone began to pack up their stuff. Lily gestured between the pair opening and closing her mouth, only able to make odd squeaking noises.

'Lils? Are you alright?' Sam asked stopping in front of Black and looking worriedly at Lily who opened her mouth and James promptly clapped his hand over her mouth and ushered her out of the room, saying something about Head's business with the fakest smile across his face.

Lily found herself shoved into a random spare classroom, followed by James, Black and Remus with Peter waiting outside.

'You're anigmai?' She exclaimed looking at the boys and turning to Remus.

'You let them do this?' At this the three looked at each other and each sat down on a desk. Lily frowned and followed suit facing the three. James checked his watched and ruffled his hair.

'We don't have a lot of time so we'll give you the condensed version of events.'

'I told you guys she'd figure it out sooner or later...' Remus murmured ruefully under his breath and Lily narrowed her eyes in response. James held out a pacifying hand and glared at Black who was scowling at both Lily and Remus.

'Look when we first figured out about Remus' furry little problem-'

'Oh that mad rabbit!' Black cut across James melodramatically, shaking his fist in the air and then pummelling the fist into the palm of his other hand.

'_Anyway,_ after we found out, Sirius, Peter and I decided that we will do out absolute best to find a cure for him.' James continued frowning at Sirius and exchanging an exasperated look with Remus, who was shaking his head slowly.

'How old were you when you found out?' Lily asked trying to cut across the boys' antics.

'Thirteen, they figured it out at the same time you did Lily.' Remus added crossing his legs and smoothing down his trousers.

'After months of researching and coming up with nothing useful, Sirius had a rather inspired idea-'

'I think insanely genius is the term you're looking for Jamesie!'

'That werewolves only hurt _people_, so we figured that-'

'If you could become animals, you could help Remus.' Lily finished and she slumped backwards staring at James in shock.

'It took us two years but towards the end of fifth year... We managed it.'

'And thus, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs were born!' Black jumped up and pulled a seemingly heroic pose and beamed down at Lily, but his face faulted slightly as he took in the look on her face.

'You became Animagi when you were fifteen? That has got to be the-'

'Most brilliant thing you've ever heard of?' Black suggested and the other two boys groaned and James even face-palmed.

'Would you stop interrupting everyone Black? And no, in fact it has got to be the thickest, most fool hardy, idiotic, illegal thing I've EVER heard of! Though it's sweet.'

'Win for James then!' Black added smirking at James, who merely rolled his eyes in response and got up.

'Well now that we have that explained, we have DADA is five minutes so better get moving.' James got up fixing his robes and the other two boys left the room, Black all put skipping and Remus smiling apologetically.

James held out her bag and let her walk out ahead of him.

'Prongs... Makes sense you know... Very you, as Remus phrased it earlier.' Lily mused thoughtfully as they walked down the corridor heading for the third floor.

'Oh yes, I'm very prancy, me.' He joked and they reached the stairs earning a few odd stares from people around them.

'I meant that they're very honourable and loyal right? And you can be quite _prancy _as you put it. I still can't believe you actually managed it. Especially by that age, it's an incredible feat of magic at any age right? But by fifteen?'

'Careful, my ego may very well swell back to fifth year size and nobody wants that!' James laughed and Lily giggled along with him. James looked down at her and smiled oddly and she cocked her head curiously at him.

'What?'

'I was just thinking that if you told my fifteen year old self that we'd be laughing like this then I would have told you that you were off your rocker.'

'If you told my younger self the same thing, I would have said that there would have been more of chance that my first born would kill Voldemort.'

At this, both of them paused before laughing even harder than before. Alice, Sam and Mary were standing outside the DADA classroom with the rest of the Marauders and they all looked over at Lily and James who were still laughing. The three girls arched their eyebrows in unison at her and Lily found herself, all of a sudden, very awkward and tugged some of her hair behind her ear, trying to ignore the rush of heat spreading rapidly across her face.

Why she was feeling so strange, Lily couldn't quite fathom... And as she found herself sneaking a glance at James as he spoke to the group, she felt an odd flutter in her stomach.

She blinked wildly for a few seconds.

'You alright Lily?' James asked her, frowning slightly at her slightly vacant expression.

'Yeah fine, just thinking is all.' As he smiled and opened the door for her, Lily felt her stomach drop as she recognised the feeling zooming around her stomach.

It couldn't be...

Could it?

* * *

_**This idea has been bouncing around in my head for at least two years, but I couldn't quite capture it, and now I think I got it... But you guys will tell me that right? Right? *crickets song***_

_**Oh crud.  
**_

_**And apologies for the Harry joke, I just couldn't help myself! Teehee! (I'm not really sorry but meh!)  
**_

_**As always please read and review... also ENJOY!  
**_


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